From TSN, 8/17/1949, page 35:
Paducah (Mississippi-Ohio Valley) fans hurled stones and beer cans at the Centralia Cubs following the second game of the August 3 double-header in which Catcher Tommy Gatts was ejected for allegedly striking Manager Eddie Kearse of Paducah as he scored the winning run in the sixth inning. . . . Everett Joyner, West Frankfort outfielder, highlighted the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League All-Stars’ 9 to 2 victory over Centralia, August 6, with a single, double, and home run in five trips. . . . Belleville will withdraw from the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League at the close of the season. Cathedral High School of Belleville has purchased the Stags’ park for $20,000, while Jackson, Tenn., is reported in line for the vacated franchise. . . .
That’s the second mention of Paducah fans getting rowdy I tripped across this evening. Probably worth a followup.
And an All-Star game long before the first ASG the league acknowledges. One of these days I need to track those down; I think I’ve got dates for all of them, but no results.
But what really caught my eye, here, was the Belleville ballpark information. Cathedral High is long-gone, now, but a little investigation shows that it was located roughly where St. Elizabeth’s Hospital is–Fifth and Lincoln. And this certainly looks like the remnant of a minor league ballpark.
Jackson, Tennessee? Hmmmm.
Punctuation as in the original, though I’ve fixed the spelling of Paducah. Got this from Paper of Record, of course.
It’s a pleasure to run across a site like yours.
As I read the past emais, it brought back my boyhood memories at Centralia.
I was going to Franklin Grade School, which was quite near the old site of Fans Field,
home of the Centralia Cubs.(They were also named after a beer, aka Centralia Sterlings, Orphans, etc.) I had all sorts of jobs there, selling popcorn, cushions, etc. My big promotion was when a buddy and me started working the scoreboard. From the stands, the scoreboard looked “cool”, but from the back,It was very primitive working conditions. All that we had to support ourslves was warped long floorboards on a scaffoldling. One guy did the innings inserts and the other worked the switches for balls, strikes and outs lightbulbs. The switches were just common house switches inside a rusty steel box.
On rainy days, sparks would fly out of the connections. One afternoon, the scoreboard caught fire and we had to jump off the back scaffoling…it was a wonder that we weren’t injured.
My favorite player was Mgr Zeek Bacesa. George Gato was another popular guy (Third Base).
When we didnt work, we checked in the younger “Knotholders” kids who sat off the main stands, near third base. (We often could chat with George.) We made 50¢ a game…but to us it was big money…for big memories.
-Bill England